Payroll is usually managed by the accounting department of a business. Small-business payrolls may be handled directly by the owner or an associate.Payroll can also refer to the list of employees of a business and the amount of compensation that is due to each of them. Payroll is a major expense for most businesses and is almost always deductible as such. The sum total of all compensation that a business must pay to its employees for a set period of time or on a given date.

In a company, payroll is the sum of all financial records of salaries for an employee, wages, bonuses and deductions. In accounting, payroll refers to the amount paid to employees for services they provided during a certain period of time. Payroll plays a major role in a company for several reasons.